After the United States Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v.

Board of Education declared segregated public schools unconstitutional, Klan activity increased in parts of the South.

White supremacist organizers used fear of desegregation to recruit members and stage public rallies.

Cross burnings, threats, armed gatherings, and inflammatory speeches were meant to enforce racial boundaries when legal segregation appeared increasingly vulnerable.

North Carolina was part of that resurgence.

James W.

“Catfish” Cole became one of the movement’s more visible organizers in the Carolinas.

He led a South Carolina Klan organization and brought his activity into North Carolina.

Before Hayes Pond, Cole had organized a rally in Monroe, North Carolina, where Black activists associated with the local NAACP resisted Klan intimidation.

That earlier confrontation did not persuade him to stop.